1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a network managing system and more particularly to a traffic managing method of clearly grasping the traffic of the entire network and an apparatus for practicing the same.
2. Description of the Background Art
It is a common practice with a network to collect the statistics on traffic. One of conventional schemes for collecting traffic statistics on a network uses an RMON2 (Remote network MONitoring 2) feature particular to an SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol). The RMON2 feature includes an MIB (Management Information Base) referred to as n1Matrix. The n1Matrix MIB indicates statistics on the transfer of L3 (Layer 3) packets switched via any desired network segment. More specifically, the n1Matrix MIB collects information on the headers of L3 packets and stores statistics between end-to-end terminals in the form of a matrix of destination L3 addresses and source L3 addresses. The statistics include the total number of packets transferred and the total number of octets transferred.
The RMON2 feature is installed in a router, which transfers L3 packets, in the form of software or LSI (Large-Scale Integration) circuit for filtering packets, or in the form of monitoring device exclusively directed to packet filtering.
An NMS (Network Management System) that manages a telecommunications network uses the SNMP to collect the statistics from routers or monitoring devices having the RMON2 feature.
However, the problem with the RMON2 feature is that it forces a router to bear an extra load when installed in the router as software or increases the manufacturing cost of the router when installed in the form of LSI. Further, when the RMON2 feature is implemented as a monitoring device, the monitoring device should be connected to a network segment to be monitored, increasing a network construction cost.